Many representatives of former President Alvaro Uribe’s Democratic Center party (“Centro Democratico”) received several threats allegedly from the country’s two oldest rebel groups, the FARC and the ELN, according to a press release Wednesday.
Less than 40 days before the up-coming congressional elections in March, the Democratic Center claimed receiving several threats against electoral candidates and party supporters, calling on President Santos and state agencies to guarantee political and democratic protection and liberty for all political parties and movements.
The Uribista press release mentioned death threats against local candidates by the country’s second largest rebel group, the ELN, in the Casanare state near the capital of Bogota.
The party also claimed to have received threats by the country’s largest rebel group, the FARC, in the south-eastern states of Putumayo, Cauca and Nariño.
Additionally, the Democratic Center asserted that it had been excluded from three National Electoral Commission meetings, even though they should have been open to all registered parties and political movements.
Finally, the one year old political group complained that the National Electoral Council denied its approval of the party’s logo that initially included a picture of Uribe’s face, saying that the act was, “an arbitrary decision unprecedented in the electoral history of Colombia,” as quoted in the press release.
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The logo then came under fire from the council yet again for using the former president’s name in the its title–Uribe Centro Democratico– which contravened national electoral law as political parties should be centered around ideas, not persons.
Sources
- Democratic Center Press Release